LADYBUG, LADYBUG FLY AWAY HOME

Ladybug wiped her eyes; post battle teleports always made her tear up. The three Judges, additional staff from Central Bank, her guild mates and various others she didn’t recognize where in the great hall. Her battle avatar was the first to run up to her and threw her arms around her.

Before she could be attacked with a thousand and one questions from her friends, an older white male wearing an all white suit and black eye patch approached her. The Judges stepped aside, keeping their distance from him. He limped closer to Ladybug as he cracked a smile.

Flanking behind him was a short female in a blue business power suit. She wore her hair up in a tight bun and half-moon glasses. Ladybug wondered if she was his battle avatar, but was too tired to care.

“Greetings and salutations,” he said and gave a slight bow. “We need to talk in private, would you mind accompanying me to the headquarters?”

Ladybug gave a weak nod as she extended her hand. Before she could blink she was sitting on top of a floating Buddhist temple overlooking the Fight Club and the surrounding area. Her battle avatar and the secretary were missing. Before she could ask any questions the white-suited man spoke up.

“I’m sure you have many questions, so I’ll try to answer you as best as I can in the short time we have. I just finished reviewing your fight…”

“You mean you watched the whole thing and didn’t do anything about it?” she shouted at him.

“Yes and no. We were unable to see what was happening till it was over. If we could have pulled you two out, we would have. Furthermore, what happened was a combination of many factors, not just one cause.”

“Fine, what the hell happened?” she asked in a collection of German, Vietnamese and English.

She shook her head trying to establish some sort of language barrier to stop her sounding like the UN.

“We are only 67% sure (Ladybug now realized that every person working for Fight Club spoke in percentages) of the events that transpired here. First, your guild leader spent too much time here and little time in the real world, a problem we are trying to mend. Second, we have been contacted, from very reliable sources that before her duels she would enact a Voodoo style ritual in order to speed up her reflexes, stamina and overall fighting skills. While channeling is not allowed, what she did skirted the rules, and thus our Judges were unable to detect that fact she had several powerful spirits piggybacking her in every fight."

He further explained that by by constant channeling of spirits, this left the door wide open for what happened next. The SS Dagger she used in the fight was a recent on-line purchase. Although it was advertised as a replica, it was anything but. The weapon was issued to a female SS officer working at Auschwitz during WW2, one of the few there.

From the best we could tell, residual energy was still on the dagger, and increased the racial hatred of Queen Bitch had in her heart and soul. What finally sealed the deal was the location of the battle arena. She used an illegally obtained item; we half-heartily call the Race Card.

The Race Card is a magical item; and was used for testing purposes and should have never been allowed to be used other then by beta testers. When used, it allows the user to control which arena they are sent to. AFC did have a Death Camp arena planned, but the Council of 10 were strongly against the idea so we scrapped it altogether.

When Queen Bitch used the Race Card, it transported her to the location of actual camp, not the location of the scrapped arena. We assume that she must have heard about it from the Rumor Mill.

Ladybug digested the information slowly, as she rested on the steps of the great temple.

“So who are you and what is this place?” she asked.

“Pardon for my lack of manners. I am known as the CEO, but you can call me Raziel Pennington III. I created this place as well at the Chicago and Atlanta Fight Clubs. (He gave a big shark-like smile) As far as this place is concerned, I call it the castle in the sky.”

Ladybug heard rumors of people seeing a large castle floating above the Central Bank, but never saw it herself. She just assumed the newbie’s were hallucinating or something because when pointed out that nothing was there, they would look again they could not see it.

“You see the castle in the sky can seen by only by 0.0314-percent of the mages here, and is different depending on the rare few who have seen it. So far only 4 people out of 144,000 have actually seen it. Only a chosen few understands what it truly represents. While you see a Buddhist temple, I see a floating business tower made out of brilliant Plexiglas and steel.”

He looked up at it, and smiled.

“So now what?” she asked, her mind trying to understand the meaning of the castle.

“So now, we don’t discuss how her former guild leader went madness. We will say she was angry because she lost, and we will try to get her help in the earth realm. You will go back to your guild and maybe show them what you learned out there. For you trouble I give you this (he tosses her a button). You can use it in any fight, and the Artifact won't count towards a magic item limit.”

She turned the button around in her fingers; the top portion was red with white lettering that said “NRA 4 EVR”.

“How do I use it?” she asked.

“That’s for you to learn.” The CEO extended his finger and beeped her on the nose.

Before she could protest she was standing in the main guild room, without the waves of nausea that came from a typical teleportation. Her guild mates were all standing around, checking her to make sure she was ok.

She looked at the clock, only a few seconds transpired from when she left the Judge’s hall to being teleported back home. Ladybug fastened the button to her shirt, making a note that she will have to learn how to the thing in private.

“Ok, before I explain what happened, I would like to point out that we only won the battle with the Training Wheels was luck. If they had our skill, their tactics and strategies would have handed us a loss. We need to get better, and soon. If we slack off now, we will be #2 to those noobs. Now I got a story to tell you!”

***

Inside the penthouse of a nearby hotel, sat a man in his leather chair. His black leather shit kicker boots resting comfortably on a leather ottoman. He tapped his index finger on his star metal bracers.

“Are you worried she is going to tell people about the Castle in the Sky?” asked a female succubus.

Her black wings wrapped around her half naked form like a cloak, as she cooed the question in his ear softly. He leaned over and kissed her ruby red lips.

“Who would believe her?” he replied.

The succubus smiled as she stood up to get a drink for her Master.